Playoffs

Playoffs started this week.  Josh's team ended the season in fourth place, Ryan is in seventh, and Caleb is in fifth.  Josh played tonight, the other two have games tomorrow, both at 5:30.  Josh had a great game!  His team won 8-7.  He pitched the 3rd and 4th inning (at this age they can only pitch two innings), at the top of the third when he started pitching the score was 2-6, we were down by four, and I was nervous! No one scored on him, and our team pulled ahead, 7-6.  In the last inning, the score was tied, the bases were loaded and Josh came up to bat.  Two strikes, two balls, and then he smacked it and hit the winning run in!  So now we move on to the next round, Wednesday night at 7:30.

We took our Wolf/Bear dens (+ 1 Webelo) to Wind Wolves nature preserve for some hiking yesterday.  They had fun; hiking, running, playing tag and splashing in the creek.  The first trail we took was the Mountain View Trail.  Once we reached the top the view was amazing, it was cloudy and a little overcast, but the air was clean, so we could actually see pretty far. 

Hello

I have plenty of excuses for not blogging the last couple of weeks.  I would make a pretty little list, but really all it would be is... excuses.  To be honest (Danny hates that phrase by the way, but since I am not tacking Sir on the end of it maybe it's all right) I've just been hiding.  Wanting to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head.
So... here is what we've been up to;
Baseball- Josh has pitched the last three games and done amazing.  Ryan's team is improving, I think.  He is struggling with swinging the bat.  Caleb is having a ball (haha).

 School- Lots of testing, Zachary and Ryan have both been doing those pesky state mandated tests.  This is the only time of year anyone gets "a good breakfast". Ryan is now registered for high school.  What a wierd feeling! Caleb had his spring program, even though the other boys did the same thing in kindergarten it is still so dang cute!  Josh and Caleb had the annual track meet yesterday, it was freezing!  I told Danny it was so cold there should have been snow.  He laughed at me, and I took back the "we could totally live in Alaska" statement I made a few weeks back while watching Alaska State Troopers.  Caleb took first place in both his events, the softball throw and the 60 yard dash.  Josh got first in the 70 yard dash and 4th in the 440 relay, he smiled the entire time, and I love how he kept his focus on the finish line!

Splish Splashin'

Look at the water fly!

Perfect drinking fountain

Wrestling is way more fun than sliding.

Baptism Day

Josh was baptised by Dad, on Saturday June 5, 2010. What a day! He was all smiles, and so happy all of his grandparents were there.

The family with Grandma M

Danny, Grandma Diane, and Josh

The family with Grandpa M

perfect attendence

The big year end awards ceremony for Josh's school was Tuesday morning. There are AR reading awards, student council awards, math awards, band awards, cheerleading awards, and all the kids who have had perfect attendence the whole year, or whatever portion of the year they've been there, are recognized and get a trophy. Josh had perfect attendence for the 1 quarter he was there.

Here he is, behind the other kids, shaking the principal's hand. He is wearing swimming trunks because they walked to the park for their end of the year water party after the awards.

He was very surprised.

Yes, I think it's a little goofy that he got awarded perfect attendence, but I love the awards ceremonies they do at our school.

Josh's team won their division championship. Very exciting.

When I asked what kind of cupcakes he wanted to take to his class for his birthday, he said he wanted the same thing as last year, except they needed to be baseballs this time. Cake pops, very cute, but man they take so much time!

Cupcakes, cupcakes... and baseball... and football

Josh's birthday is tomorrow. For his game last night I told the team mom I wanted to bring treats. I made baseball cupcakes, not too complicated, kind of cute.
Josh and Ryan both had games starting at 5:30, which is the same time Zachary gets done with football conditioning. Danny took the three younger boys and went to baseball. I took the cupcakes and went to pick up Zachary. I sat and waited, and waited, and waited(found a lame book on the floor in the truck and read), it started raining (normal Bakersfield rain, not a downpour or anything), I kept waiting, finally at 6:40 Zac walked out to the truck, we took off. Danny called, Josh's game was over, and so the cupcakes didn't quite make it. We got there in time to see the last inning of Ryan's game, which was really only half an inning because his team didn't have to bat. They both won, now they move on to the next round in playoffs, Ryan tomorrow, Josh on Friday.

A Story for Mother's Day

Danny reminded me of this cute little story about Josh last night. Since it is almost Mother's Day I thought it would be a great time to blog it. Especially since these things don't happen often enough, I need to document the moments!
Everyone who knows Josh knows that Daddy has always been his favorite, no question. Which makes this story extra special to me.
The first time (it's been a few years now) he had to have cavity filled by the dentist, our dentist sat down and explained what he was doing. He told Josh he was going to take out the sugar bugs and replace them with a picture of a superhero. It would be a special picture, so Josh needed to pick which superhero he wanted on his tooth. Josh, bless his little heart, thought for a minute and said, "My mommy! she is a superhero." It still makes me smile when I think about it.

Portraits 2010

Don't know that I should be giving them such a fancy name as "portraits" because I took them, and did all the editing myself. I have a lot to learn. Family, I will get some high resolution pics printed up, and I am planning on bringing copies out to Texas (I know you are so shocked right now, please don't pass out), when I come.

Josh's Holiday concert

The second grade worked really hard learning songs for their holiday concert this year. Josh loved singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "All I Want for Christmas". He looked very cute standing up there singing his little heart out.

When it snows

When it snows, kids get crazy excited, and I am happy I am not a teacher. We woke up to rain which, by the time the kids were settled in school, had turned to snow. Great big fluffy flakes. Caleb did a happy dance when he saw it starting to stick. School was cancelled about 10:30. I went to pick them all up, thankful again all three schools are in one spot. It's been snowing ever since, with intermittent rain. The boys tromped around in the snow/slush/mud and went sledding. They've returned indoors to thaw out with warm baths and hot cocoa.These two pictures were taken one right after the other, just with different settings on my camera, and I like them both. I like the light in the first one, and the way the snowfall looks all streaky. I like the second one because I can see the snowflakes falling. I was standing on the front patio looking down the hill, so basically this is my front yard, it looks good dressed in white.


They abandoned the dirt hill they have been sledding on the last few weeks, in favor of the higher one behind us.

Happy kids, but look how wet they are!